Breaking Away From Ordinary

Tag: writer

I was tagged by WANA buddy and God of Thunder Tour Promoter for Thor, Debra Kristi, in the 7-7-7 Game. Thanks, Debra! She rocks as writer: Debra will make you laugh, make you cry, make you think. Make sure you check out her terrific blog, Sparks in the Fire, and follow the adventures of Thor as he tours the Earth. He’ll be making another pass through the Evergreen State shortly. I’m preparing my household now for the Asgardian’s visit.

In the 7-7-7 Game you go to either page 7 or 77 of your manuscript, count down 7 lines and then paste the next 7. My current WIP is so new it doesn’t even have a working title yet, but, here’s a little peek:

“Lo siento, senorita, but I work nights and need to sleep all day. I can’t.” He shrugged, and looked away. “Unless you can pay more than my job now.” He hinted. Lily couldn’t, and embarrassed she held her persuasions. He shook his head, again.

“Lo siento.” He repeated. Lily was grateful he stuck around to help the rest of the day.

The herd was in frightful shape, physically, emotionally and metaphysically.

When they finished up that first day, Lily had no time to work on the heavy energies weighing the horses down. She activated every ward she had on the barn and even called in a couple of astral allies to guard the injured horses when she crawled under the covers that first night.

Caring for the desperately wounded horses, shielding them psychically and magically took it’s toll on Lily. Their medical care was intense, and Lily could not even begin to disable the dark energies clinging to the herd. She could only continue to keep them shielded and the strain was draining her rapidly. She slept in the barn in short bursts, when she could sleep.

Lily had no idea how she was going to fix this.

That’s a few more than 7 lines, I know. Always give more, that’s my motto.

Speaking of more…I was listening to past shows of Coast To Coast AM recently, and the geneticist who says she has isolated Bigfoot DNA was the guest. I wrote about Bigfoot recently, and mentioned the press release from this woman’s company. I said in that post that I was reserving judgement until I saw the data published in a peer-reviewed journal. I figured that was the last I’d hear of it. I was wrong.

The show aired on December 23, 2012, and it was a real eye-opener to listen to this woman speak. Dr. Melba S. Ketchum is no lightweight. She is a veterinarian, a genetics researcher and she founded a company called DNA Diagnostics in 1985 that offers services in human and animal forensics, paternity testing and disease diagnostics to name just a few. In the interview, she stated categorically that she was not a believer in Bigfoot before she began this project. She also said that this discovery has caused such traumatic upheaval in her life that, when host George Knapp asked her “if she had the choice, would she do it again” her “No!” was immediate.

In her opinion, her proof is conclusive, she has isolated the genome of a previously unknown human hybrid. That the mitochondrial DNA is unquestionably of modern humans, and that there are DNA segments that are unknown to any current database. She states these are a tribe of humans, that they should be immediately protected, and all ‘Bigfoot hunts’ should be stopped. Needless to say, she has irritated a large body of Bigfoot researchers whose bread and butter relies on hunting Sasquatch. Not everyone, it seems, is thrilled with her research or her statements.

She could not describe her research protocols, or give a lot of details because her paper is currently under review for publication. She was fully confident in the paper being accepted, but did qualify that if it was not, she would publish the data publicly. I was persuaded by her testimony.

Don’t let me sway you though. Listen for yourself. Skip to minute 41 for the Dr. Ketchum’s interview. The first hour is interesting, but unrelated to this topic.

It’s over 2 hours long, but it if you interested in Bigfoot, you’ll enjoy this. Put it on in the background while you’re cooking dinner or doing dishes, that’s how I listen. Then come back and let me know what you think.

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Hub and I went on a Ghost Tour last weekend. I love that sort of thing, and his daughter gave us a gift certificate for the tour for Christmas. We were lucky it wasn’t raining, but cold and foggy, which gave the perfect atmosphere.

Just the history part made the tour worthwhile, but we made multiple stops at various famous downtown Seattle landmarks. Like the Smith Tower.

Security guards tell of hearing furniture being dragged across floors above them, even in rooms where there is no furniture. Shadows are seen flitting across monitor screens, security cameras catching movement on supposedly unoccupied floors. In both cases, when the guards investigate, no one is on the floor.

We went into the lower level of the Merchant’s Cafe, the oldest restaurant in Seattle. I immediately felt the presence of many spirits, especially in the bar area and the bathroom. I saw a lady, dressed in vintage clothing stroll down the hall to disappear into the bathroom. I followed, snapping pictures, then returned to hear the tour guide saying how a woman is often seen going into the bathroom. I wanted to say, ‘Yes, I know’ but kept quiet. The bathroom pics were not that impressive, although a faint orb is visible in one. I had better luck with the bar. I got a few funny looks from others on the tour, but I whispered to the spirits that I knew they were there, and I was going to take some pictures. If they would like to appear in the pictures, that would be much appreciated. I took two pictures with nothing, then got this one.

I know. Dust motes, it’s the quickest and easiest explanation. Hub cleaned the lens thoroughly before we left for the tour, and it was closed unless I had it out taking pics. I did get quite a lot of orb pictures, actually, and they are never in the exact same spot, so I’m quite sure it’s nothing on the lens itself.

I know. It doesn’t preclude floating motes in the air. With the three orbs in the picture above, I’m not 100% convinced they have a spectral origin. These next two though, I’m pretty sure I captured the spirits who inhabit these portions of underground Seattle.

They are so bright and shiny, and I was actively communicating with the spirits in these locations at the time. The only alteration I have made to these two pictures is to crop them to zoom in on the orbs. The bar picture is completely untouched.

This was only my second time actively trying to communicate with spirits and capture it digitally. I’ve had great luck so far and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you. While nothing overt happened to Hub or I on the tour, I did make contact with several of the ghosts in the locations we visited. Including the one that followed us home. Stay tuned for that story!

My next time out, I’m going to try and capture some EVP’s. What ever I get, I’ll be sure and share.

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Happy New Year! New beginnings, new possibilities, new horizons to seek are all awaiting us in 2013. This is the time of year when people make resolutions, plan to break bad habits and form good ones, and reconnect with friends and family. My wish for everyone on the planet is this: May 2013 be the year that brings you all the love, prosperity and abundance you desire.

But we didn’t get here all at once. It was a long journey through all of 2012; the joys and sorrows of the past year are part of us, and it is up to us to take in those lessons, the bitter and the sweet, learn from them and move on. Take your pain, bless it, thank it for its teachings, and let it go. Take your joys, embrace them, tell yourself that prosperity/love/abundance is your true destiny and desire, and manifest that for the coming year. You can do it!

Every journey starts with a single step. Today is the first step of your new life. Seize it!

To help you on your road, I want to introduce you to two animals that make incredible journeys in a single year. Let them inspire you, that you too can accomplish much and travel far in 365 days.

Humpback whales make the longest migration of any mammal on the planet; 5,160 miles traveling from the frigid waters surround Antarctica to the balmy Caribbean. Think you’ve had a long year? Try swimming from the pole to the equator and back again. Humpback whales are found in all the oceans, and they regularly migrate from cold Arctic or Antarctic feeding grounds to warm equatorial waters to bear their young.

Humpback whales are baleen whales. All cetaceans, the animal group that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises, are divided into two groups, baleen whales and toothed whales. Baleen whales strain very small fish and other organisms from the water using thick, fibrous plates called baleen. These baleen plates hang from their upper jaws like curtains, and the skin and muscles of their lower jaws expand tremendously to take in huge quantities of water and food. The water is pushed out with the tongue and the little critters in the water are trapped by the baleen and eaten.

It’s not just their travels that make the humpback unique, look at those long front flippers. Oh yeah, and they are flippers NOT fins, here’s the difference; flippers have bones and fins do not. No other whale has elongated, wing-like pectoral flippers, making the humpback whale instantly recognizable.

What really makes me love the humpback? They sing. Just like my own Hubby making up songs to delight me, humpback males sing long, complex, beautifully haunting melodies to entice the ladies. Here’s the really amazing part, all whales sing the same song. It changes year to year, but every whale makes the same changes in a year. It’s still a mystery how they communicate the changes to each other.

I figure if all the humpbacks in an ocean can manage to get their act together each year and all decide on the new song, I should be able to step it up and make the goal of being better at networking and growing as a writer.

This tiny, 4-ounce bird makes the longest migration of any animal on the planet. They have the humpback beat by a whole hemisphere. Arctic terns migrate from Greenland to Antarctica, traveling 44, 000 miles one way. These birds have a life span of up to 30 years, and scientists estimate in that time they travel 1.5 million miles. Let me give you a little perspective on that number; in its lifetime, an Arctic tern will travel the equivalent of to the moon and back three times. I will never again complain about my commute.

On the upside, they never see winter. Their travels take them from northern summer to southern summer. How far would you travel to always have long, warm summer days?

Arctic terns mate for life. Talk about commitment: “Honey, it’s time to pack up the kids and head to Antarctica.” It must be true love.

How far would you go for what you love? From one pole to another?

We are all on this life journey together. Many small steps taken one at a time can carry you incredible distances. What commitments do you need to make for your journey? What is your first step? How far will you go?

Make sure you check out Charis Maloy’s piece on how she juggles multiple roles and plans for future happiness. Lena Corazon talks about learning to love the spaces between and shares her poetry, and Louise Behiel describes keeping her sanity when it feels like she’s between a rock and a hard place. These ladies stories are all inspiring, you won’t want to miss them!

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Just to mix things up, I thought I’d give the ladies out there a little mental break. If you’ve been working furiously over the computer, take a moment and scroll through these fine examples of masculinity.

I love hunky werewolves.

Not into the sometimes furry? How about godlike?

Or if you don’t like fantasy, and prefer sci-fi there’s Battlestar Galactica’s own Apollo.

I’m a little afraid to put up any more. Don’t want to melt anything. Enjoy! And then back to work…

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That word conjures up a lot, doesn’t it? Have you ever discussed, or considered that you may have lived a life, or many lives before? Some are vehemently opposed to it, for religious, non-religious or scientific reasons. Some believe it’s a lie of the devil. Others point to the fact that there are more people alive today than in the past. Their rationale follows; if we’re living over and over again, why would population numbers rise?

The question is often framed as: Do you believe is reincarnation? Or: Is reincarnation real? Very loaded questions. If you ask the first, well, the answer is predicated upon the belief system of the person being asked. A devout Christian will likely answer in the negative. A Buddhist will give you an absolute affirmative. Both are following spiritual belief systems, both have very different views of what happens to a soul after physical death of the body it inhabits.

Similarly the question of ‘real’ is going to depend on the views of the person answering. To someone who thinks the concept of the soul is nonsense, or just superstition, asking if reincarnation is ‘real’ will only gain you rolled eyes and perhaps a snort of derision. People who only consider scientifically verifiable facts as ‘real’ are unlikely to spend much time pondering the reality of the soul, or it’s disposition after death.

What if ‘belief’ was not necessary? What if this world that we think of as ‘reality’ is only a stage for learning life lessons? What if ‘real life’ is really on the other side of physical death?

I was listening to the September 11, 2012 podcast of Coast to Coast AM recently. The guest that night was Rich Martini, an author and filmmaker who has looked at past-life regression cases and the experiences people have between lives. He has a film and a book called Flipside, where he interviews hypnotherapists trained by Dr. Michael Newton and examines their cases. Dr. Newton developed the Life Between Lives hypnotherapy method to help people access their soul memory.

After regressing 7000 people, a number of consistencies arose in the stories of what happens after death. A meeting with loved ones and spirit guides who comprise your soul group, a review of the life just lived, planning the next life to be lived, and making agreements with the others in the soul group on who is going to play what parts in the upcoming incarnation.

Mr. Martini frequently used the analogy that life on earth is like performing a play on a stage. Everyone in your life has a role to act out; as in a well-plotted story, the villain has a purpose as much as the good guy, who frequently learns a valuable lesson through the conflict. Who plays the good guy and who plays the villain is something that is predetermined before birth in the between life stage, and roles are often swapped in multiple lives. We are given the stage, but not a script.

So many other questions arise. What about good and evil? Why do some people do bad things? Why, if we ‘choose’ this life, would bad things happen in it? The answer is 42 (thank you, Douglas Adams, where ever you are now). The answer makes no sense, because you don’t really understand the question. It can be very hard for those of us on this side of the veil to understand why bad things happen, however once on the other side, these reasons become clear. We only really understand when we are between lives.

Personally, I have had a past life regression that had a dramatic impact on me. I went with a friend one day, about twenty years ago to a group regression session. A little background: since I was a little girl (like 3 or 4 years old) I had this horrible fear of dying in a submarine. I had recurring dreams about it. On my first visit to Disneyland I flat refused to get on the Submarine Voyage until my parents pointed out the submarine never actually submerged. I can still remember tearfully asking, “It never goes under water?” Only that reassurance convinced me it was okay to get on the ride.

Fast forward to my past life regression. I found myself in a German U-boat that was sinking fast from a near miss. The crew was in utter chaos, shouts in German, blaring alarms and flickering, fading lights filled my vision. Nothing could stop our descent to the bottom, and soon we were in pitch black. The hull crumpled after we hit bottom, we had enough time to realize we were all going to die. My last thought was of my wife and son, left behind, and I could see them waving goodbye to me. It was at this point the group leader brought us out of the regression, and I was still in the midst of dying and remembering my family. To put it simply, I lost it. I sat up, crying, sobbing and hysterical. I brought the whole group to a standstill, the leader had to come over to help me, and my friend was looking at me like I’d grown a second head. I know you don’t know me, but I don’t get hysterical. You can’t, when you’re working with animals that might kill you. I don’t have panic attacks, and I certainly don’t break down in front of groups, I hate having that sort of attention directed at me. Yet, there I was in full meltdown. Fortunately, the group leader was experienced enough to help me out, and I calmed down.

I have never had a submarine dream since. I can look at submarines now without feeling short of breath, where previously, just seeing them in pictures or a movie would make me feel like walls were closing in and I couldn’t take a deep breath. That whole irrational phobia has simply evaporated.

Was I once a German sailor on a lost U-boat? I would love to take another regression and see if I can find out more details. Do you think you have lived previous lives? Are you interested in finding out more? Have you had a past life regression session? Check out Wikipedia for a really good article with lots of links about real research into past lives, and regression therapy.

Seals and sea lions are just as simple, once you know what to look for. Just remember, a true seal has no ears.

photo made by: L.Heafne

See how this lil’ cutie above just has a hole immediately behind his right eye? No external ear flaps for the true seals. These guys have very short, clawed front flippers, although you can’t see the claws in this pic. The true seals are incredibly graceful swimmers, but they inch along like fat worms on the beach. Their front flippers are too short to prop them up very far, and they drag their hind flippers behind them.

Their movement on land may be slug-like, but seals are able to climb and maneuver over obstacles such as rocks and logs.

See how this pretty girl also has long front flippers? Sea lions can pull all four limbs underneath their body and run down a beach like a dog. They’re actually pretty quick, faster than you and me over the short distance, so if you ever do see one, or more, on a beach make sure you keep your distance. Federal law actually prevents you from approaching them; all pinnipeds are covered by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Do not attempt the following:

Yes, it was the best job in the world. Harpo was a total sweetie, and he met thousands, quite possibly even millions of people in his years at the San Diego Zoo as an animal ambassador.
So, what is Harpo?

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Hey, it wouldn’t be Halloween without this classic creature of the moon. Wolves are one of the most wide-spread mammals on the planet, they can be found on every land mass but Antarctica. The rarest wolf is the Ethiopian wolf, check them out in this great article by National Geographic.

The wolf has been one of the most misunderstood animals on the planet; myth and legend frequently paint them as ravening beasts, bloodthirsty killers. The supernatural association with werewolves and vampires has only added to the animal’s mystique and fear factor.

Conversely, the wolf has also been revered as a teacher, a pathfinder, and a keeper of wisdom with the admirable qualities of loyalty and strength. They have been powerful totems for cultures around the globe and through history.